


To the memories

by ishery



Series: Cantilever [1]
Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Gen, Gen Fic, me i guess - Freeform, more bittersweet than anything, prompted piece, sorta angst, sorta fluff, who writes new years things in april, whoops
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-09
Updated: 2017-04-09
Packaged: 2018-10-17 00:38:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,372
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10582785
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ishery/pseuds/ishery
Summary: New years were chances to reflect. Times for change and realizing what the last year had brought. This time last year, they had been on the roof of the citadel, watching the fireworks.{Aka: someone gave me the prompt of fireworks, and I wrote a new years' fic in April. Whoops~ }





	

For all their attempts at making the evening (he assumed) something to relieve the stress of the way the world had gone, Lestallum’ s new year celebration fell a bit flat. Floodlights over a section that had once been a bustling market, people doing their best to forget, if only for a few hours, what the world had come to in the past months. 

From his seat on the balcony, gazing out over the whole of the celebration but not seeing any of it, Ignis didn’t think he was missing all that much. 

New years were chances to reflect. Times for change and realizing what the last year had brought. This time last year, they had been on the roof of the citadel, watching the fireworks. 

There was nothing now to compare to the fireworks over insomnia- bright and glittering and rippling against the night sky. He remembered it clearly, had watched them every year since he was very young… 

Ah. 

Memories spill forth, brought to the surface by the thought of the last time any of them had seen those colors paint the sky. It had been a wild night, he could easily admit. Noctis had encouraged him to drink more than he may have done and they'd spent the night laughing and singing terrible songs. It made his heart ache to think of it, and a breath shuddered out from his chest as he rose from his perch. Away from the night air, away from the hushed whispers and quiet revelry going on in the city beneath them. 

" Everything alright, Iggy?" 

Prompto's voice carried through the doorway to him, and he nodded- nonverbal communication always his strong suit even if he couldn't read it in others now. "Just distracted." 

The fact that Prompto had decided to spend the evening with him, instead of down in what could barely be called a party touched him more than he could say. They'd kept each other close, in the months since they'd lost Noct. Difficult as it may have been, the three of them could hardly bear to part from one another at the first. He’d hoped that it would have gotten easier with time but as it stretched on and the reality of it all began to sink in... well, it couldn't stay like this forever, could it? 

Measured steps take him into the kitchen, a hand rummaging through the refrigerator to grab at another drink as he sighed. Gladio had gone, last week he thought? Time was so difficult to keep track of these days. Out on a hunt with Iris and some of the other former members of the crownsguard- their own little attempt to bring in the new year without wallowing in the same memories that Ignis found himself stuck in now. 

"Well, what's got you thinking?" 

He could have kicked himself for not hearing the other join him in the room, should have noticed the way that the noise quieted down (the balcony doors were shut, weren't they), but Prompto's voice is careful. Like he wants to know but is afraid he already knows the answer. 

"Come on, Igs. At the very least if we're gonna sit here and drink all night don't leave me out of the occasion." 

A hollow sort of laugh left him at that, shaking his head. "It hardly feels like we've much to celebrate." 

There. It was out in the air and he could feel it expand to swallow up the space in the room. The topic that had been lingering just on the sidelines but left unaddressed. "Given the last few months-- it just," and his words fail him, head bowing as he felt for the arm of the couch, oriented himself to it again and took a seat. 

-

Prompto's responding noise is more of a rasp than a laugh, a low huff of air pulled through teeth and let loose as he dropped onto the couch beside Ignis

"It's been a hell of a year." Prompto watched ignis for a few minutes, silent as he focussed his attention instead on the drink in his hand. It'd been like this for days now, and he was glad that Ignis had finally got it off his chest. Astrals knew the man bottled it up- it had taken him weeks after Noct... It'd taken weeks for him to even acknowledge it. Longer still for him to actually grieve. 

Maybe that's what all this time had been? Months of endless night, a grieving period for a friend that they never knew when or if they would see again. 

A friend they never got to say goodbye to. 

They'd dealt with it in their own ways. When Gladio went out on hunts for weeks at a time, throwing his sword into the fight against daemons and doing everything he could to protect Iris, they knew it was him trying to find another direction to go in. He'd started working more with Cindy, working more with the cities as they continued to develop new things to protect them from the endless night and onslaught, preparing for the worst that they already knew had come- but it was all a distraction really. Just a way to pass the time. Ignis' recovery, starting out on hunts again and doing everything he could to try and organize things on a battlefield that would not end and could not reveal itself to him- -they were all dealing with it in the only way they could. 

"You'd spiked my drink," prompto glanced toward Ignis as he started to speak, sees the small, wistful smile pulling at the edge of his lips, and he can't help but mimic it a bit himself. "You'd spiked my drink and insisted that it was only a bad batch of the punch." 

"Well," he begins, warmer thoughts coming to the surface as he shifted to face his friend, grabbing up his own drink from the table in front of them. "We had to get you to relax somehow, right? You were standing around like you were waiting for someone to start the meeting." 

"And that was your idea, was it? Putting enough vodka in my drinks to knock out Gladio, let alone me?" 

Prompto laughed then, grin splitting his lips and he watched as Ignis' expression shifts at the sound. "Hey you're the one who drank it buddy." 

A moment passed, quiet laughter dying down again as they both turned their attention to what they've got for drinks in their hand now. "We sang the worst songs." 

"I'm fairly certain by the end of the evening that we'd more than made fools of ourselves to his majesty-- shame I can't remember." 

"Dude," he laughed again, "I'm pretty sure that Noct's Dad was laughing harder than any of the rest of us about it. Think I remember him telling Noct something about you never taking a break anyways." 

"Yes, well," and there's that tone again, sneaking back in even as they've no one to use it on now, all business and tight laced, "we had quite a deal to get done, didn't we?" 

Prompto snorted with that, "You did- I got to sit back and watch you run around." 

"Oh yes, how could I forget." 

The silence that fell was calmer, warm and comfortable instead of oppressive as it had been earlier that night. Through the balcony doors he could hear the slightest bits of the revelry from the square, imagining that as the evening went on and more people became drunk that this would only be the case. It was a relief, in a way. The world went on and people could find their solace in the fact that it hadn't ended yet at the very least. 

"It'll get easier, right?" 

Prompto was the one to break the silence this time, eyes focussed down on his drink and finishing it off as he waited for the answer. He wasn't sure that Ignis would even respond. Instead of words, a hand on his shoulder, squeezing and lingering there for a few minutes before retreating. 

"Yeah.” Another dry noise left him, nothing like the bright laughter that used to come so easily, and he shook his head. “Thought so."

**Author's Note:**

> Eventually, this will become part of a collab AU, but I wanted to post it now while I had the guts. :) 
> 
> Comments help word count~
> 
> Find me on tumblr @ synthesthetic if you'd like- I'm friendly!


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